Joshua
– These days, it’s typically my Fender strat through an RP355 amp
modeling effects unit & then output direct through USB or output to
mixer/computer. In the past, it’s ranged from guitar (again, my
Fender strat being a go-to) through an array of separate pedals (many
of them DOD/Digitech) & Fender amps to using other amp modeling
processors like the RP100 & outputting direct.

QRD – What’s the most important part of your rig - guitar, amplifier, or effects?

Joshua
– Probably equal parts guitar & effects. The guitar is
obviously where the actual musical creation happens, but the tone &
sound is largely created & colored by effects.

QRD – What’s your main amplifier & why?

Joshua
– Probably my Fender Deluxe 112 Plus gets the most use & was my
main amp for years - decent sound/volume - but most of the time these
days, I go direct with amp modeling.

QRD – What’s your main guitar & what are the features that make it such?

Joshua
– My black Fender strat. I love the tone, & I sort of fell in
love with it back when I saw the Edge playing it live. It was
sort of the guitar I always wanted & has remained my main guitar
since.

QRD – If you had a signature guitar, what would it look like & what would some of its features be?

Joshua
– Probably black or purple with some sort of artistic full-body/neck
design (subtle enough color-wise that it’s not distracting or
bothersome while trying to play). Or maybe some type of sepia
design similar to the artwork for the new album I’m working on.
As for features, I’d probably stick to basics. 3 pickup positions
& tone/volume control. If I did go further than that, I might
add midi-out for guitar synth capabilities & maybe a knob for some
type of modulation/envelope filter knob to color the tone &
thickness of the signal in real time (effecting both the audio output
from the pickups as well as acting as a mod wheel for the midi pickup).

QRD – If you had a signature pedal, what would it be & what would some of its features be?

Joshua
– It would probably be easy to use/program, have a versatile variety of
adjustable effects & an easy to setup chain, amp modeling, USB out,
& a variety of useable reverb/delay/chorus-effect lead/rhythm
patches, ambient/shoegazer patches, & wah & distorted lead
patches as opposed to the gimmicky/cheesy ones that typically come by
default.

QRD – How many guitars do you own?

Joshua – 4 guitars, 1 bass.

QRD – How & where do you store your guitars?

Joshua
– Honestly, I have a block of all sorts of instruments taking up one
corner of my room (with another corner having a few keyboards &
electronic drum pads set up). The guitars are in the first corner
leaning against each other (& against amps & a bookcase) in a
variety of hard/soft cases & even the original shipping boxes in 2
cases.

QRD – What do you wish guitar cases had that they usually don’t?

Joshua
– I’m not that picky. Pretty happy with my hard cases & soft
cases. If it was still the 90s, I might say cassette holders
based on the number of homemade demo tapes still rattling around the
bottom of the hard case my first guitar is in. Overall, though, I
think the padding, pockets, & compartments are all pretty adequate.

Joshua
– I’m probably not the one to ask since I actually have a bit of a
“it’s not the equipment, but what you can do with it” streak & a
tendency to MacGyver things together, but I’d say that there are
cheaper guitars that are as good as guitars that cost $1000 or $2000 if
you like the tone & use them to your advantage. I mean, I’ve
seen an Epiphone Les Paul that plays/sounds as good as an actual Gibson
(not all of them do, though... cheaper typically meaning less
standardized quality control & all). I think “good” is
subjective.

QRD – Do you upgrade & customize your guitars or just stick with what you get?

Joshua
– I’m not much of a tech-head, so I’m not really one to change out
pickups or anything. For the most part, I stick with stock
options.

QRD – How thoroughly do you research or test a piece of equipment before buying it?

Joshua
– I can get a bit obsessive about reading reviews & checking out
info before shelling out the money on equipment, especially considering
the price of a lot of audio equipment & instruments. I
usually burn myself out before deciding on a purchase... he-he.

QRD – Do you change your rig around often?

Joshua
– Not really. I like to have a standard go-to setup that I’m
comfortable with & usually upgrade every so often (keeping up with
the benefits of modern tech & all), but not too frequently.

QRD – Are you after one particular guitar tone & locking into it, or do you like to change your tone around a lot?

Joshua
– I have a variety of tones for different styles, but I usually fiddle
around & come up with patches that I want or that fit the sound I’m
going for (everything from delay/chorus-accented lead patches to wah
lead patches to washed out orchestral strings-esque ambient patches),
save them, & pretty much lock into that set of patches for an
album. I like being able to dial in what I want & record with
losing my motivation/inspiration while fiddling around with knobs &
setup for 15 minutes first.

QRD – What are some guitars, amps, & pedals you particularly lust after?

Joshua
– I’d like a Les Paul. Maybe a few more effects pedals, but I’m
fairly happy with my setup at the moment & have been spending more
on mic/preamp equipment & have been looking into new synths more
lately.

QRD – What do you think are some important features to be on a person’s first guitar that aren’t always there?

Joshua
– I think most first guitars usually have the basic features I’d
recommend. It’s more of an issue of quality & playability
with some of the cheaper student guitars that might make them less
desirable.

QRD – What have been the best & worst guitar related purchases you’ve made?

Joshua
– The best might be my Digitech RP series pedals, especially the RP355
with its USB recording setup & great effect & amp
modeling. Those pedals really opened up the sounds available to
me. The worst might be my DOD grunge pedal. Really didn’t
find much use for that in my setup with its barely controllable
over-the-top volume & shredding distortion.

QRD – What are some effect, amp, & guitar brands you particularly like or dis-like & why?

Joshua
– I’m a fan of Fender given my long-time affinity for strats as well as
some of their other guitars & basses & amps. For effects,
I’ve really been a Digitech fan for a while, from some of my early
standalone pedals like a great 80s delay/looping pedal that was the
heart of my effects setup in the mid-late 90s to the RP series adding
in amp modeling & a nice array of multi-effects (& now, with
the RP355, USB recording with zero latency monitoring).

QRD – What’s the first thing you play when you pick up a guitar?

Joshua – Usually a minor blues scale or a few chords.

QRD – How old were you when you started playing guitar?

Joshua – Maybe around 16.

QRD – At what age do you think you leveled up to your best guitar playing?

Joshua
– I’m not really sure. I know I was still expanding my horizons
& evolving my sound & improving my skills on my earlier
albums. I mean, I’m still evolving my sound.… But there’s
some point I hit where things sort of plateaued... where I just became
comfortable with what I was doing & could just pick up a guitar
& do my thing... & be at the same level even if I hadn’t played
in a month.

QRD – Why do you think a guitar fits you more so than other instruments?

Joshua
– I’m not really sure it does. I’m a multi-instrumentalist, &
I might put guitar & synth at an equal level. In fact, the
new fornever album is largely electronic & almost completely void
of guitar. However, I am recognized for my playing & writing
style on guitar & the various sounds I’ve come up with & my
guitar work is a signature element of a lot of the work I’ve done.

QRD – Do you think guitar should be people’s first instrument as often as it is?

Joshua
– Honestly, I don’t think it matters one way or the other. I,
myself, started out playing some piano by ear when I was young, &
it wasn’t until high school that I took up the guitar & began
lessons. I play a variety of instruments & incorporate them
into my music, & I sometimes write on guitar, sometimes on
keyboard. Sometimes on other things. I think people should
just follow their inspiration.

QRD – Do you see your guitar as your ally or adversary in making music?

Joshua
– I’d say ally. Maybe an extension of me & a tool for
creation. As a multi-instrumentalist, I think I see most of my
instruments that way rather than something I’m fighting. In fact,
sometimes the limitations of a particular instrument or piece of
equipment can lead to unique sounds & results you might not have
thought of otherwise.

QRD – Who are the guitarists that most influenced your playing & sound?

QRD – What’s the most physical damage you’ve done to a guitar & how did you do it?

Joshua
– I’m usually careful with my guitars aside from a few dings in the
head/neck from occasionally bumping into something while wearing it or
moving around a tight space during recording... or the occasional loose
connection.

QRD – What do you do to practice other than simply playing?

Joshua
– Not much. Rock Band? Ha-ha. I actually kind of suck
at Rock Band guitar, though. I can play real guitar, but ask me
to hold down two buttons at the same time & I fall apart. I’m
much better at Rock Band drums, pro keys, & vocals... but,
obviously, those are closer to (or the same as) playing the actual
instruments.

QRD – How many hours a week do you play guitar & how many hours would you like to?

Joshua
– It really varies on what I’m doing & working on. Sometimes
I’ll be playing for hours daily, other times I’ll go for a month or
more without playing at all. I mean, like I said, I’m working on
an electronic album at the moment & only one track has
guitar. So I’ve been spending a ton of time in the studio writing
& recording, but any guitar playing I’ve been doing has just been
bits here & there outside of that. Having played guitar for
half my life, it’s not one of those things where I feel I have to get
in so many hours a week. I usually play when I’m writing,
recording, or performing something on guitar.

QRD – What type of pick do you use & why?

Joshua
– Usually a Gibson medium. Seems to be the most comfortable for
me. Not too flexible, but not hard enough to fly out of my
fingers due to resistance.

QRD – What gauge strings do you use & why?

Joshua – Usually 9s or 10s... best playability to tone ratio, I suppose.

QRD – How often do you change strings?

Joshua
– Honestly, hardly ever. I haven’t changed my strings in a
while. New strings always sound to bright to me. &
drive me nuts with how quickly they go out of tune.

QRD – How often do you break strings?

Joshua
– It’s sort of bizarre, but I haven’t broken a string in literally
years, even using worn strings & doing a lot of bends. I used
to break more when I was starting out, but these days, the problem’s
pretty much non-existent, whether it’s the strings I’m using or just my
playing style.

QRD – Which do you feel is more proficient, your strumming hand or fretting hand & how does that effect your style?

QRD – Do you set-up your guitar yourself or send it to a guitar tech (or not set it up at all) & why?

Joshua
– I guess I’ve done all three, but I tend to leave it once set up &
not touch it as long as I’m not having any issues with string buzzing
or things of that nature. I’m more of a “pick up & play” kind
of guy. I’m also not much of a guitar tech, myself, &
admittedly don’t always know what I’m doing...so I tend towards the “if
it’s not broken, don’t fix it” side of the spectrum.

QRD – What tunings do you use & why?

Joshua
– Pretty much standard & drop D if I need to go lower. I
guess I’m just most comfortable with standard tuning & don’t really
have much of a need for alternate tunings. Some of my effects
patches, however, involve pitch shifting for tone reasons... especially
some of the patches I used on last year’s ((echo)) album.

QRD – Do you prefer tablature, sheet music, or some other notation system for writing down your own ideas?

Joshua
– I usually use tablature for jotting it down. I did take lessons
& some music theory in college, but I’m still not that proficient
when it comes to sheet music & it’s a lot faster to jot down
tablature in combination with a reference/demo recording for
tempo/timing. I actually used to write down all of my songs using
tablature. These days, though, I sometimes write in the studio as
I record & don’t jot it down in written form at all. I’ll
come up with a part, record it, then move on. Really makes it a
pain when I actually have to play things & go back to the
multi-tracks to learn the parts, but that’s just how I roll... ha-ha.

QRD – How high do you hold your guitar when playing (strap length)?

Joshua
– Usually a bit high... more Robert Smith-esque. I’m definitely
not one of those “bend over & play at your knees” types, especially
being tall. I’m actually most comfortable hand/wrist
position-wise playing sitting down in the studio, so I usually prefer
my guitar up a bit higher than some other guitarists when standing.

QRD – What’s a type of guitar playing you wish you could do that you can’t?

Joshua
– It might be cool to be able to do the whole fast shredding thing, but
I’ve never really had much of a need for that from a
songwriting/functional standpoint, so I don’t necessarily miss
it. I’ve always been a bit more of a slower & more
rhythmic/melodic player.

QRD – What’s a guitar goal you’ve never accomplished?

Joshua
– I’m not sure, really. I may have set goals for myself when I
was taking lessons or whatever, but I’m not sure I ever really set many
specific goals for my playing outside of that other than being able to
write & play my songs.

QRD – What’s the last guitar trick you learned?

Joshua
– I honestly have no idea. I’ve been playing so long that the
last guitar trick I learned would probably be more of a
recording/effects trick than an actual playing trick.

Joshua
– I don’t use too many gadgets... usually just stick to a pick... so
I’d probably say my slide is my favorite, & the most used, of my
gadgets.

QRD – What’s a guitar technique you’d like to master, but haven’t?

Joshua
– Maybe fingerpicking. I mean, I’m proficient enough to use it
for arpeggios or simple plucked chords, but I’ve never really mastered
the more complex techniques & layering some other guitarists use.

QRD – Did you ever take guitar lessons & if so, what did you learn from them?

Joshua
– I took about a year of guitar lessons & then, later, some music
theory in college (I have a BA in computer science with an external
concentration in music). It really cemented some of the basics
& techniques & let me build on them & I do use a few scales
a lot when soloing. However, I’ve always shied away from too much
technicality in music, preferring to go by feel & melody rather
than things like what chord is “technically” supposed to follow the
previous one or consciously sticking to a set of notes. Writing
& playing has always been more of an innate, emotional thing than a
cerebral thing for me. I found myself taking & practicing the
techniques from my lessons as sort of a foundation, but I began writing
my own stuff within a month of starting lessons & also found myself
inclined to do my own thing & follow my own style & natural
tendencies.

QRD – What would you teach someone in a guitar lesson that you don’t think they would generally get from a guitar teacher?

Joshua
– Maybe that playing what you feel & drawing from emotion is as
important as the fundamentals & theory if not more so. There
have been plenty of guitarists that weren’t technically good players...
some who could barely play at all... but their style & emotion
& songwriting tapped into something deeper that transcended
technicality. I suppose I’ve always been of the opinion that 3
notes used creatively or with emotion can portray more than a huge,
technically complex piece.

QRD – What’s something someone would have to do to emulate your style?

Joshua
– They come in handy for some things & I used them more in the
past. These days, I hardly ever even screw in my tremolo arm
& just stick to bends.

QRD – How often do you adjust your tone knob?

Joshua
– Hardly ever. Usually find settings I like & stick to
them. Unless the knobs get bumped or fiddled with.

QRD – What do you see as the difference between lead guitar & rhythm guitar players?

Joshua
– There’s not always a distinction, actually. I mean, a lot of my
guitar is sort of lead melodic guitar but also provides the main
rhythmic backbone for a song (in the same vein as... say... Reg
Smithies from The Chameleons or The Edge from U2... or even Johnny
Marr’s work with The Smiths). Some bands have a more prominent
distinction... one guitarist simply playing chords & providing a
framework, the other playing lead melodies or solos & coloring that
framework.

QRD – If a band has good guitar work, can you ignore the rest of the band not being good?

Joshua
– Sometimes I can be drawn in by one aspect of a band’s sound.
More often, though, it’s about the actual songs & writing &
overall sound. A crappy song with someone pulling off amazing
guitar solos overtop of everything is still a crappy song.
However, a good song with downplayed, reserved guitar work is still a
good song. For that matter, a good song can sometimes shine
through despite so-so performances or lo-fi production.

QRD – What famous musician’s guitar would you like to own & why?

Joshua
– This is going to sound a bit weird, but I actually like new factory
guitars over used, played guitars... ha-ha. I’ve never been one
for vintage equipment. Although, if we’re talking signature
models, maybe Porl Thompson’s signature Schecter just for the design.

QRD – Who do you think is currently the most innovative guitar player & why?

Joshua
– That’s a tough question. I mean, I wouldn’t really say any one
guitar player is the most innovative. A lot of guitar players
have their own styles that are innovative & interesting in their
own ways, whether it be some sort of out-there processed noise or
subtle dynamics or melodic phrases. It’s maybe a bit of a cop out
to not really answer the question, but I listen to a lot of different
styles & genres & trying to pick which guitarist is the most
innovative is sort of like choosing between apples & oranges a lot
of the time.

QRD – Where can people hear your best guitar work?

Joshua – Probably some of the fornever albums from the last 4 years... probably ((echo)), smile, & if you don’t like the world, change it. Maybe a few of the more guitar-oriented tracks on the Black Wedding album from last year, too.